Study On Japan’s Policies Towards The South China Sea Dispute

During this period of over 70 years since the end of World War II, although the international political structure has been changed dramatically, Maritime Strategy’s attention for maritime strategy has not transformed a lot, even Japan. Japan’s intervention in the South China Sea Dispute is a subject deserved our close attention, especially in a period when Sino-Japanese relations is facing unprecedented challenge and Japan values its interests in the South China Sea behind important strategic motives. Based on some research methods and theories from related subjects, for instance, History and Politics as well as International Relations, this paper will review phased evolution and connotation about Japan’s policies towards the South China Sea Dispute since the beginning of 20th century, analyze the domestic and exterior influencing factors and strategy demands, and differentiate Japan’s role demands between China, Japan and America. This will be contribute to understand and make clear about the future trend of Japan’s policies towards the South China Sea Dispute.Apart from introduction and conclusion, there are five parts in this paper. The Introduction part gives a general overview of the origin, significance, definition, literature review, structure, and methods of research. The first chapter provides fundamental basis for this paper and includes two parts. Firstly, geopolitical theories related with maritime state will be briefly introduced, including Alfred Mahan’s the Influence of Sea Power upon History, Halford Mackinder’s Heartland Theory, Nicholas Spykman’s Rimland Theory. The connotation of the ideology of maritime state in Japan based on the geopolitical theories of maritime state is also introduced as well. Secondly, the origin, current situation, and related marine geopolitics of the South China Sea Dispute are briefly discussed.Japan’s policy evolution towards the South China Sea Dispute will be divided into four stages in the second chapter revolved around three major clues, the attitude of sovereignty adscription, actual control condition, measure of settlement about the controversial islands and reefs, and the standpoint of the South China Sea lane. The first stage is characterized by intermittent invasion, plundering phosphorite and ornithocopros in islands in the South China Sea between early 1900’s to the period of resistance against Japanese aggression. Japan’s standpoint towards the South China Sea Dispute was that Japan had no objections to sovereignty adscription and stay out of it temporarily in the second stage between after World War II and in the middle of 1990s. Japan’s standpoint changed into finding some way to intervene in the South China Sea Dispute between the late 1990s to 2008. Lastly, Japan has been intervened in the South China Sea Dispute comprehensively in the fourth stage since 2009.Domestic and external factors influencing Japan’s policies towards the South China Sea Dispute will be analyzed in the third chapter. Domestic factors mainly include maritime security strategy, defense policy, the safety of sea lane, demands for resources and foreign strategy. External factors mainly contain Japan-US alliance relationship, island disputes with neighboring countries, anxiety concerning China’s increasing military strength and maintaining its sovereignty over the South China Sea Islands actively, strategical cooperation in the South China Sea Dispute between Japan and ASEAN countries that claim the South China Sea Islands, for instance, the Philippines and Vietnam.Multiple influences brought by Japan’s policies towards the South China Sea Dispute will be discussed in the fourth chapter. From the aspect of the regional situation in the South China Sea, strategic balance in Asian and Pacific regions has been broken and the South China Sea Dispute has become complicated. From the aspect of ASEAN countries that claim the South China Sea Islands, military strength and confidence in gaming with China has been enhanced in some extent. Meanwhile, on the one hand, China is faced with strategic pressure and challenge when it comes to the goal of building a strong marine country. On the other hand, China-ASEAN relations will be influenced to a certain extent as well. From the aspect about the solution of the South China Sea Dispute, the South China Sea Dispute is driven under situation of political game between great powers, which is going against with China’s dual-track approach to resolving this dispute. From the aspect of Japan, on the one hand, the sound development of China-Japan relations is obstructed. On the other hand, not only the cooperation between ASEAN and Japan in field of politics, economy, and military is impelled, Japan’s military presence in the South China Sea region is enforced as well.Based on the above discussed chapters, chapter five the conveys some thoughts from this paper’s author towards Japan’s policies towards the South China Sea Dispute. Firstly, the development of extroversive and expansionary maritime security strategy in Japan has been impelled in the process of constitutional amendment. Secondly, Japan is cooperating with ASEAN countries in maritime safety field in depth and building multilateral maritime safety mechanism dominated by Japan and enhancing ASEAN countries’maritime military strength. Lastly, Japan’s role in the South China Sea Dispute is that coordinate with the United States strategically and each takes what one needs under Japan-US alliance.The conclusion part includes three standpoint. Firstly, if the South China Sea Dispute is studied under the relation structure between China, Japan and the United States, the current oppositional situation between China and Japan will be obvious. Under comprehensive consideration from macro-level and micro-level, the question that if there is any space and condition for cooperation in the South China Sea Dispute between China and Japan, the prospect maybe is limited. Secondly, if the space and condition for cooperation in the South China Sea Dispute between China and Japan are limited, the effort that try a way of cooperating with Japan for the purpose of weakening the pressure and influence brought from united resistance between Japan and ASEAN will not be easy to put into practice. However, China’s dual-track approach is propitious to prevent interference from outside great powers in order to resolve the South China Sea Dispute and to create new strategic opportunity for cooperation between China-ASEAN. Lastly, to contrapose Japan’s policy change towards the South China Sea Dispute in recent years, comprehensive policies in politics, economy, and diplomacy aspects need to be implemented from both domestic and international perspective.